We can often see videos of various cats getting into boxes on the Internet, and their cute appearance really makes people laugh. But have you ever thought about why cats like to hide in boxes? Zoologists have discovered that this is a way for cats to gain a sense of security.

　Release Stress

Claudia Fink, a veterinarian at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, is a researcher who has focused on the stress levels of shelter cats in recent years. one. At an animal shelter in the Netherlands, she divided newly arrived domestic cats into two groups, giving one group a crate and the other one without. She found a significant difference in the stress levels of the two groups of cats. Cats that were given crates adapted significantly faster to their new environment, had much lower stress levels, and were more willing to interact with humans.

When almost all cats encounter a stressful situation, their first reaction is to retreat and hide. "Hiding is a behavioral strategy that cats adopt when encountering environmental changes and stress," says Claudia Fink. This holds true for cats in the wild as well as for cats living in your home. . But while cats in the wild will hide in treetops or caves, your cat at home will seek peace in a shoebox.

Escape from problems in a safe place

There is an important issue that needs to be pointed out. Cats are actually very bad at resolving conflicts. To quote from Domestic Cats: The Biology Behind Their Behavior: “Cats do not appear to have developed the same conflict resolution strategies as other more social species, so they may avoid intense encounters by avoiding each other or reducing activity. Fight."

Therefore, cats are more likely to avoid problems than to solve them. In this sense, a box often represents a safe zone, a place where all anxiety, hostility, and unwanted attention disappear.

　For warmth

Astute observers will notice that cats not only like boxes, but also relax in many quirky places. Some will huddle in the sink, while others like to hide in shoes, bowls, shopping bags, coffee cups, empty egg cartons and other small, confined spaces. This brings us to another reason why cats like small boxes (and other seemingly uncomfortable spaces): they get cold.

According to a 2006 National Research Council study, the thermoneutral zone of domestic cats (the environmental temperature range when the individual metabolism of warm-blooded animals is minimum) is 30 to 36 degrees Celsius. Within this range, cats You will feel comfortable without having to generate excess heat to maintain body temperature or expend metabolic energy to cool down. This temperature range is just about 6.7 degrees Celsius above the human thermal neutral zone, so don’t be surprised if you see your neighbor’s cat basking in the sun in the middle of the asphalt in the summer.

This can also explain why many cats like to curl up in small boxes and otherIn his strange little space. Corrugated cardboard is a good insulator, and the tight space forces the cat to curl up in a ball, which in turn helps it conserve heat. In fact, the National Research Council study also found that the ambient temperature of most cat homes was around 22 degrees Celsius, almost 10 degrees Celsius colder than the lowest point in a cat's thermoneutral zone.